Stuart Air Show takes flight this weekend

STUART, Fla. — It is a must-see event every year, and it’s happening this weekend on the Treasure Coast.

The 30th Stuart Air Show is a thrilling three-day event featuring some of the best aerobatic performers.

All the action is taking place at Witham Field in Martin County starting Friday at 5 p.m. when gates open.

On Saturday and Sunday, gates open at 9 a.m. Those who attend will be able to see the largest aircraft this year up close and personal -- a C130 J hurricane hunter plane, which flies into the eye of a hurricane.

Thanks to Dream Big Entertainment, a general admission ticket will get you access to sit in the cockpit of an A-7 Corsair II Aircraft and get your picture taken Saturday and Sunday.

You’ll also be able to see jets, World War II airplanes, a UH-60 Black Hawk and aerobatic airplanes perform all weekend long.

FOX 29 spoke with one of the featured performers for this year’s lineup, Dell Coller, who is the pilot of the Jack Links Screamin’ Sasquatch. The heavily-modified 1930′s biplane is an aerobatic airplane with a Wasp radial engine, but it also has a jet engine underneath.

“One of the unique maneuvers that this airplane does is the hover, so it has enough power that it can actually stop in the sky with the nose pointed straight up and sit there and hover then add a little more power and climb on up out of it. That’s something that this is airplane does that very few can do,” said Coller.

He said his parents were not thrilled when he decided to become an air show pilot, but they understand it’s his passion. Coller said it all started after visiting an air show when he was a little boy.

“Just seeing the exciting aerobatic maneuvers, seeing the airplanes just tearing it up in the sky just really got me interested in aviation to start with, and I just knew I had to find some way to get into that,” said Coller.